Friends of AlJazeera

The trial of Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Morocco, Hassan Rachidi, is due to begin at Rabat First Instance Court on Tuesday.

Rachidi faces charges of "false information and conspiracy" for reporting that people were killed in clashes with security forces in the southwestern port city of Sidi Ifni on June 7 in a protest over poverty and rising unemployment.

The offence is punishable by a prison term of between one and twelve months and a fine of up to $13,750.

The court hearing is set to begin at 1100 (1000 GMT) on Tuesday, although the defence team is expected to ask the court for postponement to better prepare the case.

Moroccan authorities have rejected as "false" and "absurd" reports of deaths in the Sidi Ifni protest, saying that 48 people were injured, including 28 police officers, but that no deaths occurred.

The finale to Germany's 3-2 win over Turkey in the European Championship semifinal was a thriller, but few in a worldwide TV audience saw it as violent thunderstorms swept across Austria and knocked out power at the International Broadcast Center in Vienna, from where images of the match were beamed around the world.

With the match delicately poised at 1-1 in the second half at St. Jakob Park in the Swiss city of Basel, screens around the world flickered and went blank. Internet coverage also was hit by the blackout. The only broadcasters whose signal escaped the interruption were Al-Jazeera and Swiss public TV company SRG in Zurich, said UEFA, which couldn't immediately explain why those feeds were unaffected.

As the storm raged over Vienna, the images came and went several times in the final minutes. Viewers missed Turkey's tying goal in the 86th minute but did see Germany eliminate Turkey with a goal in the last minute of regulation time.

Source: Chicago Tribune

Studio100 Media, a subsidiary of Studio100 of Belgium, has entered into a deal with Al Jazeera Children's Channel for its CGI animation and live-action series Bumba the Clown (150x5').

[SB - endemol] The five-year deal covers the Arabic-speaking territories of Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen.

Patrick Elemendorff, general manager of Studio100 Media, said: “This sale helps Studio100 Media further expand its presence in the Arabic regions, illustrates the rising popularity of the series and the continuous demand for great children’s entertainment within the preschool genre.”

Source: C21Media

If Wednesday's public forum on whether to keep Al-Jazeera English on Burlington Telecom's channel lineup confirmed one thing, it is this: The city-owned cable, telephone and Internet service provider must make its decision in public.

As a cable service provider, Burlington Telecom is under some restraint in what it can say about its arrangements with specific content providers. This is the industry norm. Yet the intense public interest and the political overtones ruling the debate over Al-Jazeera call for the utmost transparency in the decision-making process.

When people raise questions about free speech and hate involving a government entity -- Burlington Telecom is a city department, although it receives no direct tax revenues -- decisions cannot be made behind closed doors.

Al Jazeera English (AJE) has won the award for ‘Best 24 Hour News Program’ at the 48th Monte Carlo Television Festival.

The channel beats entries from BBC News, Sky News, Lisboa TV and the Phoenix Satellite Television Company.

Among the specific reports highlighted at the festival were Nour Odeh’s reports from Gaza, where she brought the suffering of the Gazan people, when she was caught in the middle of a violent street battle between Hamas and Fatah. Following the broadcast of the fighting on AJE, both sides in the Gaza battles agreed to a ceasefire.

In addition to ‘Best 24 Hour News Program’, AJE received nominations in every news category at the awards show, including ‘Best TV Item’ for James Bays’ Taliban Embedded, which was awarded a second place prize, and ‘Best News Documentary’ for Tony Birtley’s Inside Myanmar – The Crackdown.

Al-Jazeera English is not going to give up its slot on Burlington Telecom cable television without a fight.

Managing director Tony Burman and military and current affairs correspondent Josh Rushing took questions about the network for 45 minutes Tuesday on Channel 17, CCTV, and they plan to attend tonight's public forum at Champlain College.

The forum will be hosted by Burlington Telecom's two citizen oversight committees. They will make a recommendation this month to Burlington Telecom, the City Council and Mayor Bob Kiss on whether the municipally owned telecommunications company should continue to air the news programming.

In May, Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss intervened with Burlington Telecom to keep Al-Jazeera English on the air. He said it shouldn't be dropped without a public discussion.

An initial public forum in late May in Contois Auditorium at City Hall drew more than 100 residents. Those who spoke overwhelmingly supported keeping the station on the air. Many said individuals should decide for themselves whether to watch it, rather than have it removed because of political opposition.

The question of whether Burlington Telecom, the city-owned telecommunications company, should continue to air Al Jazeera English news service drew a large and passionate crowd Tuesday afternoon to City Hall.

The two citizen committees that monitor Burlington Telecom management decisions put the Al Jazeera question on their agenda at the suggestion of Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss.

Burlington Telecom has carried the network since December 2006. Kiss said that when he learned of Burlington Telecom plans to stop airing the Arab-owned network, following complaints about its content, he felt the decision deserved "a broader discussion."

The Arabic satellite Al Jazeera Documentary Channel is calling for Arabic language film submissions from young filmmakers. The Qatar-based channel hopes to purchase short documentary films that feature cultural, historical, environmental, geographic, socio-political, and youth related issues.

Submissions should be five minutes long, and must be filmed on HDV or Digital Betacam.

Interested parties can send their films to: Al Jazeera Documentary Channel, P.O. Box 23, 123 Television circle, Doha, Qatar.

For more information, contact abdelwahaba@aljazeera.net.

Source: IJNet

The top American anchor on Al Jazeera English left the controversial Qatar-based news network because, he said, the whole thing was getting a little too Middle Eastern. According to the Times, "headquarters in Doha provided more and more direction about the assignment of stories and the point of view... the English-language channel started to more closely resemble its larger sibling, the prominent Arabic-language channel Al Jazeera, he said." Americans and Brits have been upset about funding and alleged political interference for months. Things looked much different two years ago, when the anchor, Dave Marash, braved Stephen Colbert's show to champion the channel, arguing that Al Jazeera's English-language channel was virtually autonomous from the Arabic channel in Qatar:

HONG KONG -- NOW TV, one of Asia's leading IPTV operations, began broadcast of Middle Eastern news channel Al Jazeera English on Wednesday, the company, a unit of leading Hong Kong telco Pacific Century Cyberworks, said.

Al Jazeera English became a part of NOW TV's basic IPTV package, reaching 882,000 subscribers. Transmission began at 7pm local time with no additional charge and minimum publicity.

Qatar-based Al Jazeera also has been broadcast in Hong Kong via Cable TV since January 16.

Source:Hollywood reporter

THE new boss of Al Jazeera English is setting his sights on North America – saying growing frustration with the US media makes the region “perfect” for the Doha-based channel to strike.

Speaking exclusively to Gulf Times, Tony Burman said: “I think a lot of Americans are looking at their own media and being very dissatisfied; they are not getting an understanding of the world that one expects from the media.

“AJE is perfect for Americans because it provides a kind of detached, independent look at a lot of events that are very important to them. It’s also important for AJE to give a unique coverage of what’s going on in the US.”

Launched in November 2006, the English-speaking channel promised to cover international events from a ‘fresh perspective’ to viewers in Africa, Asia and throughout the Europe. However, tapping into the American market has proved elusive.

For everyone, wondering from the previous post of Burman being named head of Al Jazeera English(AJE), what exactly happened to Nigel Parsons (the previous MD of AJE)? Well, he's taken up a new position...

Nigel Parsons, previously the Managing Director of Al Jazeera English, has been named the new Managing Director of Business Acquisition and Development by the Al Jazeera Network. In his new role, Nigel will capitalize on his experience launching AJE to oversee new business opportunities.

Commenting on the announcement, Nigel stated, “This is an exciting opportunity for me and I am very pleased that I will be able to expand Al Jazeera’s unique vision into new international markets. In particular, I hope to use the experience gained launching the first Middle East-based English language news channel to expand the brand across a number of world languages. In time, even more people around the world will have access to Al Jazeera’s distinctive brand of independent, impartial news.”

It was announced this morning that Tony Burman has been appointed as the new Managing Director of Al Jazeera English. Tony will be replacing Nigel Parsons who launched the channel in 2006. Nigel is now tasked with overseeing the commercial interests at Al Jazeera.

It is notable that Burman used to head up the CBC in Canada - previously most senior appointments at Al Jazeera English hailed from the UK.

I suspect that you'll get all the good gossip at the usual AJE watering holes tonight...

Source: Qatar Living

Reporters Without Borders calls on the Egyptian authorities to stop harassing reporter Howayda Taha of the pan-Arab satellite TV station Al-Jazeera, who was arrested on 28 January 2008 together with her cameraman while doing a report on farm workers in Nikla, a village near Giza (20 km southwest of Cairo).

"Taha's investigative reporting on mistreatment of detainees and social problems upsets the Egyptian authorities," the press freedom organisation said. "She is already subject to a prison sentence for which she is currently awaiting the outcome of an appeal. We call on the authorities to put an end to all forms of harassment and intimidation of this journalist."

What reasons could George Bush have for giving Qatar the cold shoulder? One: its support and bankrolling of Al-Jazeera

The objectivity of historians can be judged by what they include and what they omit in their narratives. The same criterion can be applied to evaluate the bias of politicians in power. Note, for example, that after becoming the interim prime minister of Iraq in June 2004, Ayad Allawi visited the capitals of all the neighbouring countries except Tehran. This omission endeared him to Washington.

As George Bush begins his nine-day tour of seven destinations in the Middle East today, the omission of Qatar from his itinerary stands out.

What lies behind this cold shoulder? It cannot be the small size of Qatar. Kuwait is not much larger, yet it is being rewarded with a visit by Bush.

An interesting discussion about the relative performances of al-Jazeera and the Washington Post during the Iraq war. Money quote:

I asked both Mirazi and Wright to reflect on their media's coverage of Iraq. Mirazi largely rejected criticisms of al-Jazeera and the Arab media in 2003 and beyond: given how horribly Iraq turned out, if anything the Arab media wasn't critical enough of US invasion. He did say, however, that the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003, should have been more of a moment of self-criticism for the Arab media: how could it have been so mistaken in its reporting of the balance of forces and the military situation? Beyond that, however, he didn't seem to think that the Arab media had a lot of accounting to make for its performance in Iraq. The biggest problem, he argued repeatedly, had to do with the continuing domination and ownership of the media by Arab regimes - as long as terrible, undemocratic governments controlled the Arab media, directly or indirectly, there would be harsh limits on its ability to really progress.

Aljazeera on Monday referred its Arab viewers to the IDF Home Front Command's newly launched Arabic Web site, ahead of a planned emergency drill in Syria later in the day.

During the drill, alarms will sound across the country, simulating a state of war, and Syria will prepare its home front ahead of possible states of emergency that could include a war with Israel, the Arab TV station reported.

Several days ago, the IDF Home Front Command launched www.oref.org.il, with versions for the first time in both English and Arabic.

Source: Jerusalem Post

Al Jazeera’s English language news channel is being watched by an increasing number of Americans despite a lack of interest from major US cable and satellite providers, a station executive has said. Nigel Parsons, managing director of Al Jazeera’s English service, said that since the channel’s debut nine months ago, worldwide viewership has grown to more than 100 million households across Europe and Africa, and in parts of Asia.

Singapore (AHN) - International broadcaster Al Jazeera insisted on Wednesday it is not pushing an Islamist agenda, as it rejects reports the network shows footage of hostages being beheaded by terrorists. According to its managing director Nigel Parsons, accusations hurled against the network were just accusations based on a "repeated lie that quickly became accepted as fact."

Parsons said in a conference at the Global Brand Forum in Singapore, "We have never and would never show a beheading," and added that Al Jazeera is an alternative voice in the global media.

KHARTOUM, Sudan — He's all but unknown in the United States, the country of his jailers, but in his homeland of Sudan, Sami al Hajj is a national hero. The president has spoken out about him, demonstrations have been held in his name, and a bakery in Khartoum has printed his picture on its packaging.

A 38-year-old cameraman for the Arabic news network Al-Jazeera, Hajj has been imprisoned as an "enemy combatant" at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for five years, but never charged with a crime. He was arrested by Pakistani police in December 2001 while on his way to a news assignment in Afghanistan, but he's denied having any links to terrorism.